12.3 Current and Emerging Pathways in Technology Transfer

12.3.1 Current Pathways

Global experience in technology generation and transfer in the forestry sector
is limited, compared to the agricultural and energy sectors. The pathways are
complex and country-specific. The three major pathways are: government, private
sector, and community-initiated. The existing institutions involved in technology
transfer along with barriers to large-scale technology transfer are listed in
Table 12.2.

Government Initiated. One of the features of technology transfer in the forestry
sector is the non-commercial nature of the transfer of some technologies as
well as low levels of involvement of commercial institutions. Furthermore, the
forests, forestry research and extension services are largely controlled by
the governments, particularly in tropical countries. Currently technology transfer
is largely from the government-controlled universities and research institutions
to forest departments and farmers. Forestry research and development is largely
restricted to university and research institutions. These are largely funded
by the national governments and external development assistance agencies. Yet
these developing country research institutions are inadequately funded. Nevertheless,
in Annex I countries, significant research and development (R&D) and technology
transfer occurs in the private sector.

An analysis of forest research institutions and universities throughout the
world and their staffing levels clearly shows that very few developing countries
have capacity in forest science (in terms of numbers of institutes, staff or
budgets). The effectiveness of the few scientists working on forestry issues
in developing countries is frequently constrained by shortages of equipment
and operating budgets, by limited access to scientific advances elsewhere and
by local institutional issues (FAO, 1997). There are several international institutions
involved in technology (including information) generation, dissemination and
capacity building. Some examples are the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
"Centro Agronómico Tropical para Investigación y Enseñanza"(Tropical
Agriculture Centre for Research and Education) (CATIE), Centre for International
Forestry Research (CIFOR), (IUFRO), International Centre for Research in Agroforestry
(ICRAF), (IFGRI) and World Conservation and Monitoring Centre (WCMC). A new
global framework might, for example, build upon the extensive coverage of IUFRO,
the inter-disciplinary and collaborative mechanisms of CIFOR, and the practical
field presence and global data sources of the FAO.

Currently, almost all of the investment projects funded by multilateral agencies
(World Bank, 1993) and bilateral agencies contain a technical assistance component.
When the World Bank, the largest multilateral funding agency is considered,
only US$5.4 billion out of US$396 billion was allocated for environmental projects,
where forestry is only one of the components and, furthermore, only a marginal
part of it was devoted to R&D (World Bank, 1997).

Private Sector Dominated. Private sector timber companies and industries (paper
mills) are increasingly participating in R&D and technology transfer in
the forestry sector. Technologies and machinery for recycling, harvesting, and
processing are well developed and largely originate from industrialised countries.
The private sector is likely to play a larger role in the future, even in developing
countries (refer to Tables 12.2 and 12.3).

Community Initiated. A substantial part of technology transfer in the forestry
sector within developing countries is driven by local communities and NGOs.
This is particularly true for forest conservation practices, agroforestry systems,
and systems for harvesting of non-timber and other subsistence products. Much
of the transfer also takes place in the form of "software", i.e.,
training and capacity building. Local institutions, such as NGOs and grassroots
organisations, are increasingly participating in these technology transfer programmes.
In some countries, such as Mexico, communities with commercial forest resources
have organised nation wide organisations of social forestry enterprises. Through
these organisations villages receive administrative and technical training and
financial resources.

The existing institutions are currently playing a limited role compared to
the demands. Currently, there is a marginal role for private sector or industry
participation in technology transfer. Forest departments, research institutions
and NGOs are even more constrained by limited financial support and technical
capability. The existing institutional mechanisms have several limitations to
promote climate mitigation technologies, namely, limited resources and absence
of policies and institutions to process, evaluate and approve mitigation projects
for implementation (Sathaye et al. 1999).

The existing institutions and arrangements are inadequate to meet the emerging
challenges of promoting forestry-based mitigation projects. In tropical countries,
the state forest departments play a predominant role in all aspects of forest
protection, regeneration and management. There are uncertainties regarding the
areas under tropical forests, rates of deforestation, causes of deforestation
and the C-densities in vegetation and soil of different forest categories. Such
information is crucial for developing strategies, projects and technologies
to reduce deforestation. Currently, the lack of funding and technical capabilities
in tropical countries limit the generation of information on all of the above
aspects.